Alberto Garzón announced yesterday the decision to backtrack on his incorporation into Acento, the consulting firm created by the former socialist minister José Blanco and chaired by the former populist minister Alfonso Alonso, less than 24 hours after the news became known Tuesday afternoon
Through a statement released through the X network, the former minister of consumption and, until December, top official of Esquerra Unida based his position on the “huge uproar that the decision sparked in the ecosystem of left”. Including “the formations and spaces for which he has worked”. That is, UI, Podemos and Sumar.
“The general impression, as various leaders confirmed to me, was that it was a decision that would negatively affect the electoral expectations of the area”, Garzón justified, then placing the political interests of the formations in the left of the PSOE who, with mediocre vote projections, aspire to the presidency of the Xunta de Galicia, above their own: “I don’t want my personal decision to harm my former colleagues”, he pointed out.
With the letter going viral at full speed, the reactions of the formations indicated by the former minister did not take long to follow each other as they helped, in part, to define the degree of depression of each one.
Summarizing directly is different from the apportionment of blame. And through the mouth of its spokesman, Ernest Urtasun, he not only denied any alleged “interference”, but also declared that the multinational group did not have any information on the subject.
IU, meanwhile, chose to celebrate the resignation. Its head of Institutional Policy of Esquerra Unida Andalusia, Inma Nieto, expressed joy for “the decision taken, whatever the motivation that led to it”. And after her, the former councilor of training in Madrid Carlos Sánchez Mato expressed himself, boasting that IU has always denounced the revolving doors. We don’t sell each other. Consistency is a treasure. Our people, too.”
It was Podemos who loaded the inks the most. Through a column published in the Diario Red, its ex-founder Pablo Iglesias alleged that there are “more decent options for a communist to rent” his experience as a minister to a consultancy “led by ex-ministers of bipartisanship that sells its services to private companies”. And he sent a warning to Esquerra Unida in which he hinted that his current leadership “maybe should have offered him to chair one of its foundations and not have to endure the ridicule that will come to them these days”.
Who did show support to Garzón by condemning the pressures received was the Minister of Transport. Óscar Puente (PSOE) lamented the scrutiny to which progressive leaders are subjected and listed some of the tolls that must be paid: “We need to be charged little. Apologize all day for being a politician. Endure insults and intrusions into private life. If you are left-wing, in addition, suffer all kinds of slander and slander. And then look for a job in something that doesn’t have the slightest relation to what you’ve done.”
